Marrugeku in Perth
The western city of Perth has been inhabited by human beings for at least 40,000 years. There is still a large indigenous population here, and the culture has a long presence here that gives it the weight and depth of a complicated and fascinating history. Perth is also one of the most livable cities in the world right now. There are populations from all over the world inhabiting the city, and it’s easy to see why. It is very, very hot, that’s true, but it is also extremely diverse, with a buzzing urban center, and it’s close to the ocean, besides. There are plenty of museums and galleries, a great performing arts scene, as well as excellent restaurants and hotels. Perth has an awful lot to offer visitors of all ages, and is a spectacular place to take a holiday.
There is also a very large portion of the population here that is from elsewhere, and this gives it a constantly evolving cultural landscape, as well as a genuine spirit of hospitality. There is room here for new traditions, ideas, and sensibilities, and this makes for a great arts scene. There are some excellent theater companies all over the city, as well as a splendid dance scene, and some amazing experimental works coming from a variety of sources. These all come together, however, with the evocative, and spectacular spectacles of Marrugeku.
This is a local company who blend Aboriginal dance forms with intense physical theatre, video projections, and circus-like acrobatics, to make for large-scale works that are simultaneously crowd-pleasing and cutting edge. The level of cultural experiment here is high, and they like to mix and create things that sometimes clash and sometimes blend, and sometimes it’s a bit of everything at once. Their latest work, Burning Daylight is a perfect demonstration of their aesthetic at work. This work is set in Broome, where the cultural mix is Aboriginal Australian, with immigrant communities which are Malay, Chinese, and Japanese. Cultures come up against each other, and cultural forms are put together on stage, to make for a performance that is extremely exciting visually, as well as cerebrally, asking important and immediate questions for the here and now.